I met Mike at Mike Burgener’s gym some time in early 2007 when he returned from a deployment as a corpsman in Iraq. What he had going for him right from day one was ambition, commitment and the kind of work ethic that I very much respect and am constantly disappointed in not seeing in more people these days. Unfortunately, he was old (yes, 34 is old in this case), immobile, and not particularly quick. But he put his head down and went to work, chipping away for what has now become nine yea...... Continue reading

If that isn’t an attention grabbing title then I don’t know how else to do it. I’m going to give you the back story, the game, the rules and why it will help you out.
I train with two other guys at a Catalyst Athletics affiliate in San Diego called Outlier Barbell—that is until they get tired of my antics and throw me out. For now, however, my love of Motley Crue and crude yet effective tips about weightlifting technique are still tolerated. Anyway, we were in th...... Continue reading

I need to explain the title of this first before I get started. In 1987, I had just finished my freshman year of high school and I went and saw Predator in the theater. This was during Arnold Schwarzenegger’s peak, when Terminator, Commando and the Conans were all coming out and guys across the world were flocking to the gym and buying any book or magazine with him on the cover. This movie is by far my favorite movie of all time. When it comes on one of those cable channels that plays the ...... Continue reading

I recently competed in a local meet and had a shit showing. It wasn’t from a lack of training or effort; in fact I had a great few months leading up to it. It was just a shitty performance and I honestly had never been that embarrassed or pissed walking out of a meet as I had that night. I was back in the gym the next day because it’s what I do and I honestly couldn’t imagine sitting around my house thinking about it for another second.
So fast forward a couple of weeks and ...... Continue reading

I repack my gym bag every day before I leave to go train. I take out the empty water bottles and replace them with new ones, throw out the balls of pre-wrap and tape, and make sure I have my Jolt gum, clean towel, and two pairs of socks. I do this because I liked to be prepared for what I am going to do and I'm like this with everything I do. Nobody has to tell me to do this this; it’s just a habit, and like many habits, some are great and some are bad. My love of birthday cake ice cream f...... Continue reading

Let me start this pile of words off with two things...
1. I hate mobility work. When I get to the gym, I want to lift, not roll around on a bunch of over priced dog toys for 30 minutes. I don’t read books about it or pore over videos of people strapping themselves up with rubber bands. The thought of lying on top of what looks likes a $50 sea anemone is something that just doesn’t interest me.
2. NOTHING in this article is ground breaking or anything you couldn&rsqu...... Continue reading

In August of last year my beautiful wife and I bought a brand new 3-story loft that had an attached 2-car garage with ceilings just barely high enough for me to lift in. I was so excited, as I had basically been raised in garage gyms since I started Olympic lifting at Coach Burgener’s years ago. I was finally going to be able to take all my weights out of my buddy’s garage and set up shop once again and lift in the sanctuary of my own place. So I went to work and got everything I nee...... Continue reading

Let me paint you a picture and tell me if it sounds familiar: You’ve spent the last few reps looking at the bar making sure you actually put the right weight on because you are really hoping that you have misloaded or that you somehow did the math wrong and that the load is actually supposed to be 10kg lighter. You’re trying to figure out what exactly is going on, because you just started missing lifts and the bar feels like it has been welded to the platform all day. Speed? You can ...... Continue reading

I’m going to preface this with the following: I am at most a journeyman weightlifter. I started years ago and I have competed regularly since then; I have done well in some meets and others I have not. You will never see me write about technique because I leave that to guys like Greg Everett and Matt Foreman who know what they are talking about, and more importantly can help people understand it. I’m just a guy who loves the sport and loves to be around others that do. I have been in...... Continue reading

I wish I liked the clean and jerk as much I like the snatch.
I wish I liked to work as much I love going to the gym to lift.
I wish I liked mobility work.
I wish I had bought 100 pairs of the Adidas 2008 AdiStar shoes because apparently every dude between the ages of 15 and 50 think those will make him become Klokov according to the prices they are going for on Ebay
I wish my knee’s would feel like they do in 7mm Rehbands and heavy dose of Sombra, all the time.
I wish my qua...... Continue reading